SL must move beyond the Techi Wiki culture

by Todd Temple

"Among my favorite Dr. Suess stories is his tale of the Sneetches. As you may recall, these beach-dwelling creatures came in two varieties. The Star-Belly Sneetches were a snobbish sort, and the Plain-Belly Sneetches longed be like them. So, when entrepreneur Sylvester McMonkey McBean showed up on the beach with his star-making machine, Plain-Bellies eagerly slapped down cash for a ride through this contraption. The result: Their bellies now sported stars, making them indistinguishable from those born with the mark.

The native Star-Bellies were none too pleased. To remain unique, they hurried to pay McBean for a trip through his star-off machine. Now the formerly starred were starless, leaving those who began life without stars regretting their new tattoos. So, they, too, took a trip through McBean’s removal machine. Even if you don’t know the story, you can figure out where it’s headed.

As one class of Sneetches desperately sought to retain its exclusiveness, the other class sought just as desperately to pierce it. Each Sneetch paid for multiple passes through McBean’s expensive machines, till all had run out of money and no one could tell one class from another. When McBean drove off the Sneetch beach that day a very rich man, he left behind a poorer, wiser, integrated society.

Economics Lesson #1: Some people will always pay to fit in, while others will always pay to be different. As long as both types of people have money to spend, there will always be people who get rich by playing the one group against the other."


“That day all the Sneetches forgot about stars. And whether they had one, or not, upon thars.”
— from “The Sneetches,”

I don't know any of the "they" you speak of. Tekkie wiki makes no sense either.

I have nothing but respect and admiration for anyone that creates a popular object and works well to support it.

A very large role of mine in SL is that of tech support for my radio products. Each day as I log on, I normally deal with one or two IM's about setting up radios under specific land conditions. Rather than tell my customers to read the Readme notecard, I prefer to attend in person. If there is an issue, I want to know about it by seeing it for myself. I can do so with confidence, because I worked "in the dead of night" to create a good scripted object. I do so with keen interest, with a challenge and privileged to have wonderful tools at hand, not the great sense of distaste that you would have everyone believe.

You know what they say about a better moustrap. I very much enjoy the folks that have beaten the path to my door and I am grateful for the feedback, much of which are now features. No sir, I care very much about my customers.

I give away as many radios as I sell. Am I a threat to my own market? I don't think so. Promotionals, advertising and support are all common marketing standards. I don't need malls, although I have some spots, however marginal.

So, if my love for scripting and my willingness to support it casts me into some Prokofyism evil class here in the forums, so be it. My guess, it's not as odious as your agenda.

prok, you started out all civil and then fell into the trap of making nasty assumptions about people again.

on journalists: (and Jeffrey's link was interesting too -- Jeffrey, you ever read Snowcrash? interesting information distribution model in there)

While there are many good journalists out there, there are also a ton of self-serving, self-satisfied (if not arrogant), sometime jealous, holier-than-thou journalists out there who are in fact not objective and are extremely sloppy in fact checking. Every time I am close to a story, this becomes apparent to me, and I know many journalists who are willing to take a clear look at their industry. It's a mixed bag... well, so is all of humanity, so is the blogger set. Unfortunately, a lot of our "trusted sources" have a lot of egg on their faces after the last several years.

There are enough good editors and good journalists, that you can indeed trust a WSJ/FT/NYT more than your average blog, and the more information noise that gets out there, the more people are going to look for reputable trusted sources to help them parse through the BS - and I'm not just talking about elites. Many people in the east/west coast cities seem to erroneously think the rest of america can't read anything more challenging that the side of a milk carton.

Cris,
I completely agree with you that there are a lot of people who simply assume "I can't do it." It is human nature, but I don't have much sympathy for those who quit before they try. Some know they wouldn't enjoy the act of creation, and prefer to dance all night. That's cool. But those who give up because they are afraid they will fail... well, these are the choices we make as to how we want to live our lives.

It's on my "To Do" list - the book is actually sitting on my shelf at home. I just haven't had time, but for the time being, I've dug up most of the concepts people use from it.


This is a fair assessment.

Prokofy,

Do you think you could spare all of us your trite references to Mother Russia all the time? This is not the USSL. I don't know why you feel the need to throw in the lame fake Russian act in your posts, but dear god, if you are longing for it so much, I am sure many people would gladly donate to buy you a first class ticket to Siberia.

Well, the future is here. The masses are here - I'm one of them - and more are coming. SL may not be ready for prime time, but prime time is ready for SL, and here we are.

I would have joined at the beginning, when I first researched what games I might like to play, except for lack of broadband. Well, I have it now! And my 3-plus-year-old computer is up to the game!

So I start playing the game, and immediately I notice certain problems and weak areas, primarily because (a) I wasn't born yesterday, (b) I have played other online games, and (c) I'm not a total idiot.

My random comments on the topics at hand:

1. "Loki mentioned a “bigger hook”, that hook is generally entertainment. The true geeks and artists will, of course, bypass everything and beeline into the sandboxes the minute they are off Orientation Island. But the rest of the SL users, they need entertainment to make SL worth their time and money when they could just be parked in front of American Idol. The nature of commerce is that you must have manufacturers producing highly sought after goods and consumers who want to purchase them. The fact that they don’t hang out together is irrelevant. "

I bow down and worship the person who wrote this.

However, I would add that it really isn't as simple a matter as the geeks and creators versus the consumers.

There is a third group (and individuals usually cross over from one to another of the three groups, though they may spend most of their time in one), just as there is irl, where few of us are simply creator and not consumer, or vice versa. I think it is a grave error to overlook this third group. That is the group who wants something more meaningful and challenging to do than just collect bling and dance half-naked, and yet are not heavy into a bunch of mathematical formulas required for scripting or whatever.

Do you guys see what I am saying? For myself, I absolutely do not care for dancing in clubs, half-naked or not, nor one whit for the mindset that generally pervades therein. Not a bit! Neither do I like doing nothing but run around gawking at everything all the time. Or only run around shopping. And in fact, how can I enjoy shopping much, when there is no way for me to make money?

There really aren't all that many people in the world who would join a game just for the thrill of dancing in a virtual club. For myself, I like making things, but I would also like something to do besides either make things or consume things. That is what this game needs. More structure for the Average Jane.

2. "are certain people so hell bent on perpetuating the idea that you can't learn, that you can't grow, and god forbid, that you can't share what you love with others just for the sake of sharing?"

It is a mistake to divide the world into "those of us who create things in SL" and "those who stubbornly think they can't learn." Truth is there's just a whole slew of people who simply don't WANT to learn how to do those particular things you do, ever think of that? And there are others who just can't learn, due to lack of motivation, or lack of having a mind that works a certain way. I haven't run across anywhere else in life where people so insistently keep pointing to one or two specialized skills and insisting everyone should learn to do them and enjoy doing them, by God.

And yet there are lots of ordinary people who want to play and enjoy SL. A whole slew of people are people who, yes, can and will scare up a prim or two when they feel like making something - they just don't want to make it their life's work. They are the people who will go play Tringo or go to a club or go watch MSFT3 - or WHATEVER they like to do - to be entertained. But these same people also want to feel productive. They need a way to make money and make a living in this game that doesn't involve rotating prims or scripting, or being a land baron. There needs to be something for them. This whole slew of people I speak of are the people who are coming. That is, if the game grows. Otherwise - well, it's just basically gonna be us, guys, anyway, so no problem.

3. I agree with whoever listed all those things about the non-techie content. There has been oodles of stuff put in the game for the non-techie people! And of course the non-techie players totally benefit from what the techie people come up with. And video streaming - that has to be the most terrific thing ever! And so what if some people like it for porn, well hey, let them have their porn! The poor unimaginative wretches, lol.

4. "Second Life IS NOT A GAME. Repeat that over and over in your head. It is a social experiment combined with a development platform and a virtual world simulator."

Now this, I think is at the core of many of the arguments on the forum, and that its a concept which ultimately works against the progress of SL. Second Life IS a game! Repeat that over and over in your head.

Now matter how much you want to dress it up as a "social experiment combined with a development platform and a virtual world simulator," it is just a game. Call it a hobby if you like. But basically, it's a game. Everybody knows that. If you don't recognize that, then you cannot grow the game. I assume that the Lindens' ultimate idea here is to grow the game and to make money off it. I don't see them running around the web making sure their game doesn't appear on any of the sites with the lists of online games, on the theory that it's not a game.

Those of you who think you are participating in something which is not a game are going to be run over by those of us who want to come PLAY THIS GAME. Sure, it's a high-brow type game, in that there are OPTIONS to do things which are mind-stretching, which involve talent and technological knowledge, and all KINDS of stuff. God knows, the best thing in the entire SL world is the ability to rez a prim and not have to pay for the privilege. But, for all of that, it is a game. When you lose sight of that is when you isolate yourself in some ivory tower and lose touch with the pulse of the environment, and lose sight of the Unwashed Masses, lol, who will spend their MONEY on this GAME. They need something to do in the game besides what you may enjoy doing.

Which reminds me, it always puzzles me when people speak of SL only in terms of what real-life money they make off it. I think most people would approach SL as something to have fun in (whatever form that fun takes, whether it's writing scripts or something else), rather than a business. It's neat that some people can make money off it, but I don't think that is in the minds of most players really, and not in the minds of most players to come.

5. "A good share of the people get the game to work and have a good time and buy their bling and animations. But quite a few get frustrated and quit, and feel a wall between themselves and the technocratia that rule the game."

This is a fact. And when they quit, they don't quit because it just isn't quite their thing, or they found it a bit boring, or whatever - they very often say, emphatically, "I HATED SECOND LIFE." They don't just quit, they quit in utter disgust. Now, why is this? I think part of it is because they feel a wall between themselves and those Prok calls the technocratia. I think they main reason they quit, though, is there is nothing for them to do; no purpose, and no way to progress or set goals - precisely because they do not want to conquer some fierce learning curve to create things, or become real estate agnets, and also they don't want to, how shall I put it, "hang out in clubs."

And even if they wopuld be happy just to hang out with their friends, fix themselves up a little house, wear this and that outfit, etc., they can't very well do that, because they can't buy much, because there is no way to make money.

What this game needs is a little more game in it.

coco

Wasn't it the techi-wikki doll that gave Mr. Brady all that bad luck?!

After reading this thread, I have the strongest urge to have a Tiki Party.

Hmm let me get this straight ....

There a certain minority of people who form small groups or work indivdually on more complicated technical tasks to try to figure out new ways to do things, or to build their own objects and scripts becuase its cheaper and its fun.

(people who parrallel this ethic in real life are inventors, researchers and engineers, contracotrs, do it yourselfers, artists and writers)


When they hit upon what they think is a marketable idea, they pakage it and sell it to the rest of us, something we may think is neat or looks good, or is fun for us.


AND WHY IS THIS WRONG?

think Techi whatsits is the wrong word .. the word your searching for is Capitalism.


there are creators and consumers .. how else could the economy work?

It's wrong because others are insecure about not being able to do it, and it hurts their wittle feewings. Anyone with a skill, talent or knowledge not possessed by everyone else, who doesn't hide that fact out of shame or sensitivity, is obviously just an elitist snot.

Wow, Coco, I don't have to come on the forums as much now, you're keeping the wordcount up. I am going to have to re-read what you wrote but I totally accept your point: it is not divided in some static black and white way into "us" and "them, contect-creators and tekkies versus "the masses".

There is what I would call the tier-2 people who are also builders and content creators. They just are in the Grade B or Grade C levels, not up there with the FIC-approved lot. They aren't the high-aesthetic architects but the very competent house builders. There should be more of that in our world. And there should be entire cities, world, lives based on what seems like "Grade B" to the "Grade A" people but which provides meaning and richness of content to more people.



I wasn't going to get into this in so much detail but that attitude explains why I must. Say I bought 8192 square meters on a sim. And somebody else bought, I dunno, 16896 square meters, and there are bunches with 1024 or whatever.

And ONE PERSON with only 2048 -- only 2048! or only 1024- FUCKS UP THE ENTIRE SIM AND THE THREE NEIGHBOURING SIMS FOR EVERYONE ELSE.

How do they do it? By installing a club where people fight with weapons and particles, by installing a bounce scripts or 3, by installing all kinds of animated crap all over the place. So they might, on their tiny 2048 where they are paying $15 a month, use up 335 scripted objects ALL ON THEIR OWN LOT.

Whereas I, with my 8198 might have nothing except 4 rentals boxes, and the person with 16k may be preserving a forest and log in on Sundays to contemplate Nature As Conceived By Eric Linden.

So why the FUCK excuse my French do I have to pay $75 to sustain the script habit of that methed out peabrain on the 2048?

I don't know how to put it any more frank to you Cubey. Get it, or don't. See it as some ding against your vehicles, or don't. I'm talking about what life is like for the average person who wants to play house. If you just hang in sandboxes or hang on you sim with your friends, you don't feel any of this. You don't empathize. So don't. But I'm thinking ist just makes damn good sense for the Lindens to begin thinking about charging for all that CPU usage.

Perhaps there's some "technical" issue I've not understood here. What I see is this: somebody with $15 and 335 scripted objects can completely degrade the sim performance, and I'm left with crap on land that is quadruple the size of theirs, for which I pay more. *I pay more money, yet I get less*.

People often wonder...why do I scream? Why do I rant and rave gainst "the FIC" and "tekkies"? It's because of times like this, when I explain a simple thing about CPU and scripted objects and sim performance and my significantly degraded experience in the game, and the answer I get is: "But hey, I pay for this game TOO!"

Oh, I suppose you'll just tell me it's a "client side" problem, nm.

But wait a minute, you just decided that every tekkie wiki is a capitalist holiday working to develop, market and package ideas.

Yet it is not.

Most are just people hacking around feeling cool and goofing with their friends. As is their right! They don't have to be "on the job" in a game!

However...so often, what happens is this: -- and I don't have to go at all far for an example.

Schwanson Schlegel says, hey, everybody, I want to make a private island which becomes the welcome mat for newbies with classes, housing, free stuff for newbs! Come help the newbs! And then everybody goes, oooh, Scwanson you are so noble and selfless dude helping the newbs! Why, here's my free stuff to put out! Or here, I'll come script something for you! Or, here, I'll give a free class! Let's all make a wiki to help the newbs, yay!!!! Then wait just 7 minutes -- never longer -- and somebody comes along and says "Oh, oohhh, and let's get the Lindens to steer the newbs to Schwans Newb Palace" and everyone goes "Yayayyyy!" and a Linden appears with her clipboard like that NPC in The Sims Vacation and say "Yayyyy!"

But lost in all this self-congratulatory stuff masked as altruism are these facts:

1. Schwanson buys and sells islands, and this is just part of that whole buying and selling of islands thing he does -- and God bless him for it.
2. He and the other wikkians will use this Newb Palace to steer newbs into their businesses, jobs, networks, apprenticing, sub relationships -- whatever floats their boat.
3. Everyone will provide free stuff and free work to help Schwanson's possibly loss-leader business and feel proud to do it yet...they will have significantly sapped newbie initiative, AND raised troubling questions of why the Lindens have to help them in their steerage project.

So when I hear about this latest wiki -- go read the thread if you doubt it isn't EXACTLY like this, I say: no, I hate this idea, let the Lindens put up a big bulletin board ever changing with landmarks of different businesses but not tout one business, and no, sell stuff to newbs at least at a low cost to get the economy going, and no, don't interrupt the natural flow of newbs finding and selling first land -- including to Schwanson! -- by diverting them into all sorts of free by-ways.

Honestly, why is this so hard to understand? Buster, you get it. This is what I mean. But if you attack something like a newbie helping wiki, my God, you might has well have shot your own grandmother for the understanding you will get.

Whatever the merits to wikis, this constant rallying of wikis is a closing of society, the way it works in SL, not an opening, because it creates funnels and apprenticing and old-boy networks, rather than new vistas in the economy.

At least in TSO or ATID, newbs had to either pound gnomes or bake clay and find rushes to get off the island. SL doesn't ever let newbies get off the island.

Which is, in the end, what it all comes down to. You're just one of those The Suburbs Online kind of users. The White Picket Fencerati. Quit trying to mold SL into TSO. SL is far more than a domestic simulator.

What also helps Schwan is that he isn't a total ass, and people like helping him.

I know, damnable humans and their propensity for working with pleasant people!

Ardith in the lead!

Maxx in a close second!

Where's Ingrid?

Ardith, I don't have any picket fences, hon, sorry LOL. And I didn't even have them in TSO. You don't know me. Go back to sleep. No Bedazzle has appeared yet.

Maxx, I totally agree, the Lindens should only help nice people, especially older player nice people, and steer all the newbs to them, yes, that would be right and proper.

Where's Waldo?

With such witty rejoinder, I'm shocked that your opponents don't piss their rhetorical pants.

Prokofy,

There you go again - putting the cart before the horse and shooting the horse. Not a fucking thing was said about Linden promotion or involvement in Schwanson's project, but in your twisted mind, it's already a done deal. Schwanson and the Lindens are in cahoots!

How does that work exactly? I am so sick of reading post after post of yours where you accuse people of things that have no basis and truth, then when called on it, you just avoid it with more useless blather and don't even address what was said. So here is a challenge - answer this question, succinctly, without any faux Russian references or hyperbole. I know it's tough, but you can do it, I know you can!

Where is the Linden promotion aspect of Schwanson's proposal?

Try to answer that without projecting motive, something you seem incapable of doing, and one of the hundreds of reasons why your voluminous posts are nothing but much ado about nothing except feeding your ego.

*pisses rhetorical pants*

Dreamer

Prokofy, you're doing a great job imagining what evil negaverse Cubey might be thinking, but seriously, I don't know where you're getting this stuff. I could you leave you all day to argue with imaginary people.

Yeah, I've dealt with problem neighbours who use too many scripts. It's a difficult problem that everyone acknowledges as such: some residents use a disproportionate amount of simulator resources. From what Philip has said to us in Town Halls, etc., it sounds like they're looking for ways to solve the problem.

A little over a year ago, there was a similar problem with unregulated prim use. Someone with 16 sq m could hoard massive numbers of prims -- a large percentage of the simulators maximum number -- and deprive their neighbours of prims. LL addressed that problem, fortunately. Hopefully, they'll address this one too by assigning a percentage of script resources that's proportional to the amount of land we own. That would be one solution.

The solution is NOT to attack your fellow players for creating the very stuff that makes Second Life so interesting. Without any content -- scripts, buildings, vehicles, games -- players would lose interest, and you would lose your rental business.

On another note, you write endless tracts in this forum about how there's a group of "sneering" and "smug" content creators who "look down their noses" at other players. Who? Where? I have yet to see this. As far as I know, you've invented this along with your conspiracy theories as a cheap ploy for attention.

I'm guessing his monitor screen is reflective

The reason Chip Midnight, Christiano, and their love triangle with Prokofy continues is because PathFinder simply lets them attack each other like children in a schoolyard.

Ban them all for recess, and this would stop immediately.

As for the point I'm trying to make is that we need to start developing a SecondLife for those residents who the ins and outs of SecondLife is not a priority for.

We need to make a part of SecondLife for people who simply come in and all they know how to do is chat and right/click touch/pay money.

However, again, I agree with previous remarks that SL is simply not ready to grow because it is so unstable. However, I'm not sure how we'll hit 1 million by 2007 at that rate.

Typical of you Blake, you have a) backtracked from what you posted b) sucked up then bitten the hand that feeds you c) offered zero solutions.

What exactly would you suggest having for people who only know how to chat and right click? Who is supposed to produce this stuff for those people?